Last Week, Good and Bad

I was reading through my friend ecogrrls blog and found that I suddenly felt like writing, ironically I'm coming to some of the same conclusions that she was coming to in one of her last posts.

So recently, like this week, I started a new job, got Roxie a new day care (then subsequently changed said day care for reasons I will elaborate on later), my oldest son marched in the Timpview Marching Band in the Summerfest Parade and then last of all... I was in a car accident and my car was totaled.

Quite a week right?

The day care issue, well I tried really hard to find Roxie a good day care (I mean really hard). I spent a day sorting through the state referrals for licensed day cares, another day visiting 4 day cares and the next day visiting 3. These daycare options have been widely varying in quality, with only 2 that were run fairly well (I ruled them out because one was too strict, the other I ruled out because the assistant couldn't figure out that her "ADD" son might have problems with the handfulls of gummy worms that he was eating). One daycare was in an affluent home with lots of toys and fun, there was a dedicated bathroom and teeth brushing was mentioned... but she opened a room where the center kids were supposed to sleep and there were older boys in there that she chased out. Plus she was disorganized and had too many children. I ended up going with a Chinese girl (twenty something) whose mother helped her out. They had converted their garage into a playground, and all seemed OK, but at the end of the week Roxie was crying about a little boy who was calling her "Poo Roxie." I didn't like that there seemed to be no structure at all and that they had given Roxie a bag full of Ritz crackers to eat...

Ideally I would find a place that was as thoughtful about food as I am, but seeing that there only one person that I know who is as thorough at investing what she eats I know it's a slim chance that I will find that ideal.

So yesterday I called the last person on my list (who I had found hard to get a hold of and didn't appreciate it) and visited her home. It turns out that she is a grandmother whose daughter & four year old grand-daughter is living with her. She does daycare so that her grand-daughter will be well cared for while her daughter works, and only accepts 5 kids. When Roxie met Miley it was as if they were long lost friends. Both are brown and about the same age and size. They both love pretending and dolls, Roxie is going to have a blast! :)

My oldest son decided that he wanted to be in the marching band this year. He had to switch back to the clarinet (from the oboe) which is the instrument that he started out on but he hadn't played it for a few years and had to get up to speed. He practiced his heart out and passed off the requirements to be in the band and marched for the first time yesterday.

I can't believe I have a son entering high school! That's just bizarre, I just don't feel that old (in some ways) but then I do feel that old in other ways (I've been through a lot, I have a right to feel some what older and wiser)

As for the accident, well... ironically I was thinking that it would be nice to get a new car as I was driving around yesterday.

There was a festival going on, I didn't account for this when I turned onto State Street, so when traffic stopped I missed it and slammed into the car in front of me.

Unfortunate and a loss but I shall move on and not worry too much about it. It would have been more devastating if I hadn't just started a new job.

I'm working at Adobe for 6-9 months as an intern. This job is super easy and I'm getting paid well for it. It's not that I don't like a challenge, I do, but sometimes it's nice to not have to stress out about being able to do the job well. My manager has already mentioned giving me a recommendation when the position is finished, so all I have to worry about then is doing a good job! Basically what I'm doing is grouping the records of their customers together, they've got quite a few duplicates, the computer has sorted out quite a few... and now they need human eyes to look at them. There's a team of 6 and I like everyone on the team. 1 person was let go from the group who seemed to be frustrated by the requirements for the job and didn't have very good Excel skills. They made one of the team (an older lady who had been an administrative assistant before raising her family) the lead. She's the contact for people who need to communicate with the group. She does not have as many technical skills as some of us but she is very organized. Another of the group, a man who used to be in Real Estate, the one to go to for reports... she had me create a power point (which I over thought, making it too complicated and wasting time that I could have been researching companies with). Thus when they ran a report on Friday it showed that I had a far lower amount of companies/tasks completed. The good sign is that after being given a few tips by my manager I was able to clean up the power point, and when I focused on sorting out the companies I did quite a few of them.

Working with Adobe has been wonderful, they treat their employees really well and my schedule is flexible (in some ways) soooo... the next few months should be good for me.

The only thing I have to "deal" with is driving the Yukon to work (the car that Sam has been driving around). I want to be independent, I don't want to give my ex an excuse to ingratiate himself with me...

I will "deal" though, and hopefully get a nice new car soon. :)